It seems like the first and most obvious step for the trucking industry is to replace trucks on the long haul only. For example, one driver might drive the truck to the highway onramp and send it on its way, then the truck drives itself for hours and hours to where it is at an offramp by another driver who takes it to its final destination.

Self-driving will certainly reduce the work available for truckers, but it will be a really long time before it eliminates them. Tractor trailers are not only difficult to maneuver, but often require very difficult maneuvers to park where they can be unloaded or unhitched. One way to look at it is that, in the near future, the computers will just be handling the boring part of the drive.

And automation does promise to reduce accidents significantly, and it can seriously reduce fuel use (and pollution) by allowing lines of trucks to coordinate their movements tightly, staying close to each other's slip streams. And self-driving trucks will certainly be more patient with each other--as in less likely to block traffic with a +2mph pass of another truck while going uphill--because they won't require such stringent timelines, which will make the roads a better place for everyone.

I technically qualify as an 'older developer,' though not old enough to embrace the title personally. On several occasions, I've worked with teams (as a contractor) made entirely of 'age-challenged' developers, and I'm always amazed to get kudos for saying things I consider obvious. Obvious, I suppose, because I have the experience the young'un do not, and experience does help.

While I'm sure that I have all sorts of limitations I'm not aware of, like I probably smell funny or maybe don't know why Euphoria is the most awesome programming language _ever_, or simply can't hold my own on the foosball table, I think that toddler teams should have at least one elder mentor onboard--someone whose been through the ringer a few times--because we do know stuff that you'll only realize you didn't know after we say it, and we tend to be pretty grounded, which helps if you're trying to do things like, I don't know, make money.

As with West Virginia blocking Telsa, small places banning luxury items are really only spitting in the wind. Do you really think any Swiss person wanting an Apple watch is _not_ willing to make the short trip to Zurich or Lyons to get one?

Without Telsa, who will compete with West Virginia's single BMW dealership!?! I guess anyone interested in the $70k luxury sedan range will have to drive the extra 56 miles to Ashland, KY if they want the full range of options. I sure hope they can afford the gas...

Right now, based on current technology, American companies are developing battery-powered electric cars, while Japanese are introducing those based on fuel cells. Over the long range, say in ten or twenty years, do you see one technology overtaking the other?

Yes, Delphi, an basically unknown in the self-driving world, is trying to make a big splash by doing something that appears monumental while perhaps not actually making much of a leap forward in the technology. But out in most of America, self-driving cars are still pretty controversial. Accomplishments like this, assuming they pull it off, can make huge political advances.

And I don't know about you, but I'll be mighty frustrated if, when the technology arrives, we're stuck waiting on the legal system.